00:42-00:49
Continuing the curving motion along the elongated vertical axis of the body sideways, the body is conducted to let itself be caught by gravity, and raises up again via an inflation of the lungs originated in the center of the chest while unfolding both arms sideways. The body now hangs suspended between gravity and levity, its weight distributed on a diagonal axis with the right foot firmly on the ground, the left leg extended leaning only slightly on the left toe and forming together with the spine and the arms a T shape. The right palm of the hand is turned downwards while the left palm of the hand is facing upwards, the one receiving, the other giving.
The full circle described by the right arm is complemented and perpetually regenerated by three smaller circles traced on the floor with the right foot. They actualize smaller halves of the big infinity loop described with the torso and the arms until the clockwise momentum is exhausted.
At the moment when the right and the left arm meet in full extension behind the spine which already bends in a spiral motion toward the counterclockwise direction [still 00:21], the clockwise movement potential is released towards its opposite direction, re-encountering again the trace of the arrow on the same upward diagonal where it first entered the physical realm of the dance, this time shooting an imagined/imaginal arrow back to where it came from. [still 00:23]
00:35-00:37
The two lines on the verge of crossing each other pass through the navel center and re-appear again in front of the body via the two crossed arms.
00:38-00:42
Two extended arms joined together now trace one side of an upward curve of a figure eight, raising the body again towards its vertical alignment. On the upper edge of this curve, the body is extended maximally in its vertical length, expanding the outer edge of the curve outwards while giving its length to an imagined/imaginal upwards pull initiated by increased receptivity towards levity and actualized and supported by pushing the balls of the feet firmly against gravity.
A DANCE PHRASE ARTICULATED IN THE FORCE FIELD BETWEEN GRAVITY AND LEVITY
Pre-phase of the creative process of SEI, 2013-2015
The dance phrase in this section was created between 2013-2015 in the context of an MA artistic research at the University of Amsterdam (UVA).
Choreographed/written movement materials that I reference in the creative process of SEI are based on this dance phrase.
The Logic of the Dancing Body (2015)
Logic 3: between gravity and levity
A field of tension generated by a polar opposition between gravity and levity is here explored by articulating the movements of a dance phrase in relation to this polar opposition. Gravity and levity are treated as psychophysical forces, experienceable through the material physicality of the body as well as through the immaterial inner realm of the psyche.
A dance phrase is comparable to a written sentence. Instead of a linear sequence of verbal signifiers with more or less concrete meanings, a dance phrase can be seen as a sequence of non-verbal signifiers constituted by bodily movement and blending imagined and concrete spaces.
A language of full body gestures emerges from situating choreographed movements within this field of tension between gravity and levity. The choreographed movements unfold through time, suggesting a yet undefined meaning to be deciphered by both the dancer and the observer of the dance. Associations of traveling through imaginal spaces trigger and are triggered by the choreographed movements and intermingle with associations of meaning in the imagination of the dancer and the observer of the dance.
Suspending the body in equilibrium between gravity and levity, conducting a melting of the body into an active surrender to gravity, amplifying imaginative receptivity towards levity, and an engagement with the momentum that results from a physical negotiation of the force field between gravity and levity, are explored here as conditions for non-verbal communication through corporeal movement.
The qualities and textures that emerge in the dynamic play of these gestural qualities are investigated with an eye on their expressive, affective, communicative and eventually epistemic potential, navigating on the edge between literal and figurative, empirical and imaginal and muscular and intuitive movements.
In this dance, even before the dance begins, some basic conditions need to be established to allow the unfolding of the aimed at communicative quality:
There needs to be trust and faith in the body and in its ability to sensibly navigate space. The body will perceive fear and act accordingly. It would accumulate tensions that obstruct the energetic flow of the dance. The energetic household of the psychophysical resonating space needs to be self contained, fully resourced from within. There needs to be an inner silence which is needed to feel and to inhabit the totality of one’s own matters as fully as possible – an infinite task.
This dance phrase was conceived by allowing the dancing body to propose a set of movements. These movements emerged in a research setting that aimed at minimizing the influence of preconceived conceptual ideas on their expression, providing a platform for the body to speak first. The movements are then linked together in a repeatable choreographed sequence of motion (a dance phrase).
A variation in articulation of this phrase (modulation) negotiates the logic of its expression in the psychophysical field of tension between gravity and levity
00:00 - 00:05
By shooting awareness into the fingertips of the right hand and projecting the full extension of the line of the right arm downwards and outwards, it drifts upwards, alchemically accelerated by a transformative encounter between a conscious intention shaped in the inner space of my imagination and the body’s immediate response to it.
I decide to stop the motion on the horizontal plane where the arm is extended sideways in a ninety-degree angle in relation to the right side of my body. Having the palm turned downwards with a fully extended arm feels like an absolutist exertion of will power. If I would direct the extended arm with the downward facing palm diagonally upwards in front of my body, it would coincide with a bodily expression of an affiliation to Fascism. It is a movement potential I discern, but do not intend to actualize, hence I switch the palm of the hand to facing it forwards, giving, softening the elbow slightly, bending the line in an ever so slight curve. This expression of the right arm is imprinted with at least two meaningful resonances which are simultaneously present in how I color its performative intention: the codified carrying of the arms in the second position in Classical Ballet – although less curved and higher - and one half of the bodily expression of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro.
00:07 - 00:11
Then I dissolve the density of tension needed to maintain the horizontal extension of the arm. The inner tension of the arm is now transformed into permeability, transparency and lightness. It is an attempt at imagining a sublimated state of the Ballet body: weightlessness. It is also an attempt at entering with my body in an imagined space which I call ethereal space. The arm consequently floats upwards easily, apparently defying the downwards pull of gravity, by the ability of the materiality of the body to respond - to a certain extent - to the power of imagination.
00:13-00:15
The path of the arrow passes through my left shoulder and initiates a double loop, an infinity figure traced by a circular motion with the right arm taking the right leg along with it in its looping activity via an inner connective logic between the tissues of the arm and the leg, before hitting the center of the chest for a second time.
00:33 -00:36
The momentum of motion here exhausts itself and needs to be reignited by giving the weight of the body to the left leg and by pushing the right leg off the ground against gravity. Two full turns follow where one side of the loop of a figure eight is reiterated twice. The outer edge of this loop extends beyond the torso somewhere in the gravitational field of momentum described by it, while the crossing lines that open toward the other side of the loop flee towards converging behind the back of the body.
00:37-00:38
The torso surrenders forwards into the downward pull initiated by the momentum of the converging lines, suggesting simultaneously a rebound of the downward loop of the figure eight curve upwards again via the arms while the head keeps sinking towards the ground.
00:11 – 00:13
From the highest and lightest sensation of a levitating arm extended diagonally upwards, I imagine a shooting arrow that passes from another realm of being into my body via a slight curving of my finger tips which perpetuate and materialize its flight by shooting straight towards the center of my chest.
00:24 - 00:33
One of the straight lines that connects one side of the loop of a figure eight with the other side of the loop now crosses the body where the body needs to surrender to allow the line to pass through the body in response to the gravitational pull. The right arm extends this line all the way downwards where it re-emerges again upwards, re-tracing the same line while rotating the entire body again counterclockwise. This line is now projected towards a point at infinity beyond the finger tips while the right leg continues this line downwards towards the ground and beyond, into the deeper strata of the planet. The performative intention is to invoke the perception that the line suggested by the body is extended beyond measure towards both the body of the planet and the infinity of space where it is situated. The dancing body here actualizes just a minuscule aspect of this infinite line.
00:15 – 00:18
As soon as the arrow hits its target again, a disruption in the rigid straightness of the legs occurs through the bending of the knees, initiating a drop downwards of the pelvis and a lowering of the overall extension of the body on the vertical axis.
00:18 -00:24
The body now enters a sequence of extended momentum while describing variations of infinity loops. The path that the body is traveling is intensified by amplifying the spatial projection of the full body in a field of tension between gravity and levity.
The first half of an infinity loop is described or actualized via a clockwise rotation of the body with a fully extended right arm, anchored through the left leg. The performative intention is to give, to invert the logic of receiving sensation towards giving sensation from inside of the body outwards. [still 00:20]
